


Let the Good Guys (and Gal!) Win

by BardicRaven



Category: Camelot - Lerner/Loewe
Genre: Acceptance, F/M, Forbidden Love, Friends to Lovers, From Sex to Love, Happy Ending, Love Confessions, Love Triangles, M/M, Multi, OT3, Personal Growth, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Pre-OT3, Pre-Poly, Religious Conflict, same-sex love acceptance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-13 21:44:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16900362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BardicRaven/pseuds/BardicRaven
Summary: Arthur and Guenivere have an important negotiation to make - the most important one of their married lives so far.What to do about their mutual attraction (and actions upon that attraction) for a certain Knight of the Round Table.





	Let the Good Guys (and Gal!) Win

**Author's Note:**

  * For [queenbookwench](https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenbookwench/gifts).



> Note/Trigger Warning/Mild Spoiler Warning: There is a bit of anti-m/m language at the beginning, but Guinevere does decide to go for the wider worldview, once it is pointed out to her that it's love, it's all love.

Looking back, both Arthur and Gwenevere realized that they should have seen the signs. A sudden arranging of clothing when Gwen came upon her king and his foremost knight ‘discussing affairs of the kingdom’, a sharp uptick in the number of times Gwen asked Lance to accompany her ‘on a walk in the woods’.

But for all their otherwise worldly wisdom, they were young and new to marriage and trying very hard not to see anything that would disturb that besides. Because they both knew, for all their innocence in this particular matter, that they had a duty to their families and their respective kingdoms that outweighed any mere physical attraction – whether or not it was being followed up on.

So they did not see anything amiss in those things and the situation might have continued on for quite some time, if it hadn’t been for Mordred looking to make mischief, and therefore, looking far more closely at everyone and everything than any of the three of them would have preferred.

A suggestion here and a pointed comment there, a nudge and a comment in the appropriate ear, and all too soon, Gwen and Arthur were in the royal bedchamber having it out with each other.

“Gwen, why did you not tell me?” Arthur paced the room, the turns habitual after this many years. He knew precisely how many steps it would take to get his body across his room and back. What he did not know was how to handle this situation, this woman. This ofttimes inexplicable woman who he’d taken to wife, to have and to hold, on behalf of himself and his kingdom.

The woman who faced him with equal displeasure and discontentment.

“Art, why did you not tell me?” she asked in return. “My longing is, after all, the more common.”

“Tell that to my armies.” He waved her confusion and objection away, determined to have the right of it in this argument. “Anyway.” He collected himself and continued. “Why I did not tell you was that I did not think it would be relevant. That, in the end, it would not matter.”

“How can you say that?” The anger edged toward tears as Guenevere turned angrily away from him.

“Because…” he found he could not bring himself to say it. _Because I thought you’d never know. Because I thought you’d be just like this – angry and hurt. Because I thought that you might leave again and this time, I wouldn’t be in time to save you._ “Never mind. You’re right – it does matter and I was wrong to think otherwise.”

“Yes, you were.” She stood there, proud and defiant. “I’m worth more than that. To myself. To you. Do you not value me? If only as nothing more than your queen?”

“You know I do, my Gwen.” He crossed the room to her, turned her gently around, took her hands in his. “And as far more than just my Queen.”

“I know no such thing, my lord,” she said angrily, pulling her hands away and crossing the room to be away from him again, “and if I am to be your Gwen, I would suggest you act like it.”

Arthur thought about following her again, decided against it, his own anger beginning to rise in his chest, flowing up until it spilled out of his mouth. “What of you? You are the one who is supposed to remain faithful – for me alone. What of you? You went traipsing off to the greenwood every chance you got – making a fool of me under my own nose.” A pause, significant in its length. “In front of my kingdom. At least Lance and I enjoyed our pleasures decently behind closed doors.”

“You should not speak to me of decency, my lord. What you do with Lancelot is unnatural.”

“Is it unnatural to love?” A question asked in all seriousness. “For that is all we are doing. It is the way of men to express the love of their hearts with their bodies. Lance and I have done nothing more than that.”

Gwen turned to him, angry words in her own mouth, but they died away unspoken as she saw Arthur’s face, torn between the loves he bore. She paused, thoughtful, anger draining away, before she said.”No, I suppose it isn’t.” Another pause. “But it’s not the way I was taught that love goes.”

Arthur laughed, a short, bitter laugh. “Me either, Gwen. But one thing I’ve learned as king is that not all goes as you would think. Or have been taught.”

Guenevere nodded, walking a few paces away, before returning, crossing the room to him. This time her hands reached out for the reconciliation, and Arthur did not pull away. “So, what do we do, my lord? Arthur.” She caught herself. “What do we do about this love we share? A love for the same… man.” She tried out the words carefully, unfamiliar as they were.

Arthur raised her hands to his lips, kissing them thoroughly before releasing them. “Shall we… learn to love the same man?”

Guenevere thought about that for a moment, then, beginning to realize some of the possibilities in that scenario, and how much pleasure they could mean for her, her reply came quick and easy. “Yes, my lord… Arthur… I think that would be a most excellent plan.”

She sobered. “What of Mordred?”

“What of him?” Arthur said impatiently, relieved at having the problem solved so easily. He, too, imagined the possibilities, and found them most pleasing. And while they hadn’t actually asked Lancelot yet, he couldn’t imagine the man minding.

“Arthur,” Guenevere said chidingly. “You know what power he wields among the knights. You know the poison he’s been spewing. It’s how we ended up here tonight. Have you forgotten already?”

“No, of course I haven’t.” Arthur sighed, letting his thoughts drift for a moment. “When a situation is coming towards you, it is often better to attack first, rather than let the enemy choose the ground.”

“What does that mean, Arthur?”

“It means that tomorrow, I am going to speak to the Archbishop.”

* * *

 

Arthur was as good as his word. The next day he sent for the Archbishop, receiving him in one of the private rooms set aside for meetings such as this.

Once they’d both done the courtesies, Arthur went straight to the heart of the matter. “It says in the holy texts that man should not judge their fellow man. Is this not so?”

“Yes, your majesty,” the Archbishop replied, wondering what his king was getting at. He did not have long to wait to find out.

“Therefore, those who would judge us are themselves in violation of the holy texts.”

A sigh. “It would appear so, your majesty.” A pause, then delicately, “Why does your majesty ask?”

“Because there are those in my court and in my kingdom who are judging the love that is growing between myself, my queen, and my knight. They seek to reach above their station and in direct violation of the holy texts and say that this love is wrong, and must be punished.”

He looked straight at the Archbishop, who had the grace to blush. He’d been one of them, and that was the other reason Arthur had asked him here today, besides the obvious one of his being the highest religious in the kingdom. “They speak treason,” Arthur said mildly. “And it will be punished as such from this day forward.”

He pushed back from the table and rose, the Archbishop perforce rising with him. “Please inform the others that we will not be bullied in this. Our love is pure and between us alone. We will be neither gainsaid nor condemned for this.” He began to walk from the room.

Before he reached the door, Arthur turned back to a spluttering Archbishop. “And those who say it is unnatural? Let them take it up with their God. For we shall not be listening.” And with that, he swept out and went back to his loves. He knew that it would not be easy – that this was far from over. But it was a beginning, and for now, that was enough.

**Author's Note:**

> And there you go! Of course, this is the calm before the storm, but I like to think that, somehow, they will weather this one too.
> 
> Happy Hollydays! 
> 
> YG


End file.
